The Monday Miscellany

A recent survey has indicated that over 70% of people in Britain remain entrenched against the UK joining the European Single Currency.  Among that number, we can safely assume, there is Fabio Capello.

Such is the plummet of the pound against the Euro that signing mid-ranking players from the major continental leagues is no longer a financially viable option for any but the most rich Premier League clubs.  Those players who are signed in January will mainly be from other Premier League sides and many are British.

Indeed, there has never been a better time for the big teams in La Liga or Serie A to plunder the Premier League’s talent.  Real Madrid, for example, can now offer Cristiano Ronaldo a substantially larger wage than they could just one month ago without increasing their Euro output in real terms.  Alternative right-wing options for Juande Ramos’s new wards all seem to be English players; Jermaine Pennant, Ashley Young and Aaron Lennon have all been liked with the Bernabéu giants, albeit with varying degrees of credibility.

In major transfers between English sides, most of the players whose futures are in the balance are British; as well as Lennon and Pennant there speculation abounds concerning the futures of Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, Stewart Downing, Wayne Bridge, Jermain Defoe, Craig Bellamy, Matthew Upson, Dean Ashton, Scott Parker, Steven Fletcher and James Morrison.  Leeds youngster Fabian Delph is also viewed as a prize potential acquisition.  Shay Given, Newcastle’s outstanding goalkeeper, is not British but the culture of English football has always viewed Irishmen as ‘less foreign’ than say, French or Dutch players.

The inevitable effect of the January transfer windows new dynamic is that clubs will be more likely to hold faith with their own British talent than gambling on obscure acquisitions from overseas.  Only Manchester City have the financial wherewithal to spend big on players from the continent such as David Villa.  At Fratton Park, Portsmouth’s fire-sale of Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid should mean increased first team action for players like Sean Davis and Richard Hughes.

West Bromwich Albion, loathe to spend what little money they have on a new striker to replace the injured Ishmael Miller, have wisely acquired exciting Arsenal youngster Jay Simpson on loan until June.  Less financial output, no extra wages on the bill next season if they are relegated and a young English prospect will get more Premier League match-time.  Everybody’s a winner but Capello is laughing.

***

When Portsmouth fans have to go to Middlesbrough on a bank holiday, it is blamed on the fact that the fixture list is now compiled randomly by computer, as opposed to a bloke with an atlas and a piece of paper.  When Manchester Utd have away matches the weekend after European action, there is a conspiracy.  Managers are becoming so paranoid about fixture congestion that their arguments have become illogical and contradictory.

***

At last, a proper Merseyside derby in one of the English cup competitions.  The last time Everton played Liverpool in the FA Cup was in February 1991; the famous 4-4 replay at Goodison Park, although it should be remembered that the first match - the one we all watched on TV - was a turgid, goalless draw at Anfield.

Since 1991, the only cup derbies on Merseyside have involved Tranmere Rovers; both in the same season, with varying results.  Liverpool won a dramatic quarter final at Prenton Park 4-2 in 2001, in the days when Tranmere had the Rory Delap-esque throws of Dave Challinor as one of their main attacking weapons.  It was a memorable cup run for Tranmere that season; in the fourth round, they had scored a spectacular win in another derby, this time at Everton, when a certain Jason Koumas inspired them to a stunning 3-0 win.

In the match inbetween the two derbies, Tranmere had been 3-0 down to Southampton at half-time but produced an extraordinary second half comeback; former Evertonian Paul Rideout scored a hat-trick, with Stuart Barlow’s late winner sending Prenton Park into rapture.  (Although the best bit is hearing Andy Gray, on Dean Richards scoring Southampton’s third, “And that surely puts the tie beyond Tranmere”.  It’s on tape forever, Andy.)

Ironically, though, the catalyst for Tranmere’s comeback that night was the withdrawal of the thunder-throwing Challinor at half-time, as manager John Aldridge introduced Barlow from the bench.  And the winning goal still came from a long throw, taken by somebody else.  Carlsberg don’t do substitutions…

There was still time for more drama, even after the 83rd minute winner from Barlow.  Richards missed an open goal for Southampton.

That was the last season of FA Cup football on ITV before it returned to the commercial channel at the start of the current campaign.  They picked their matches well in the 2000/01 season: in the third round they got an entertaining 1-1 draw between Newcastle and Aston Villa; in the fourth West Ham’s 1-0 win over Manchester Utd, where Paolo Di Canio poked the ball past the rather silly Fabien Barthez, who was busy trying to appeal for offside; a high-scoring match at Anfield in the fifth, a 4-2 win over Manchester City; the Tranmere-Liverpool quarter final; Liverpool scraping past giankillers Wycombe Wanderers in the semi final at Villa Park and finally the Michael Owen-inspired comeback in the final against Arsenal.  Here’s hoping there’s similar entertainment to be had this season.

***

That Tranmere-Southampton match was a replay, after a dull 0-0 draw at The Dell.  It is often replays that produce the great FA Cup matches.  After an initial draw, the ‘underdogs’ often go into the second match with confidence high, the favourites with a sense of trepidation.  Often, great replays follow unmemorable first matches.  That was certainly the case with the Tranmere v Southampton and Everton v Liverpool matches discussed above; also, the Manchester Utd v Arsenal semi final replay in 1999, complete with Roy Keane’s sending off, David Beckham’s long range goal, Peter Schmeichel’s last minute penalty save from Dennis Bergkamp and Ryan Giggs’s late individual winner followed a goalless first meeting.

So, too, was it the case when Manchester City came back from 3-0 down at half time to beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 at White Hart Lane in 2004 (Martin Tyler after 45 mnutes: “They’ve rendered the second half academic.”)  The first game, it is often forgotten, was a tedious 1-1 draw at Eastlands, with a header from the badly marked Gary Doherty cancelling out an early Nicolas Anelka strike.

***

Sometimes it is better to be a big fish in a small pond.  Serbian striker Nikola Zigic, a ruthless target man for his national side, couldn’t hit a barn door for Valencia, failing to score a single goal in La Liga between his arrival in summer 2007 and his return to Racing Santander on loan last week.  On Sunday, he scored immediately on his return at Racing, the only goal in a 1-0 win at Real Valladolid.

***

Not being a Manchester Utd supporter it would be easy to criticise Mike Riley’s performance in yesterday’s Southampton v Manchester Utd tie but, apart from the penalty, he got most of the major decisions right.  Matt Paterson deserved to go for his horror challenge on Nemanja Vidic’s studs, while Johnny Evans had a covering defender when he committed a foul a few minutes earlier.

***

During 2007, when it was fashionable to advance the view that English footballers were all rubbish, it was often claimed that many players, particularly John Terry and Frank Lampard, were made to look better by having top foreign internationals playing alongside them.

This season has exploded that myth; Lampard, along with the goals of Nicolas Anelka, has carried Chelsea - as an attacking for at least - for most of the season while, without John Terry alongside him to marshall the defense, Ricardo Carvalho and Branislav Ivanovic have looked like little boys lost in the last two matches, both unable to defend set pieces in the 2-2 draw at Fulham and a calamitous error by Carvalho setting up Peter Clarke’s late equalizer for Southend Utd on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.

However many superstars have been drafted in over the last five years from overseas, Terry remains by far their most important player and Lampard and Joe Cole their most gifted.